Ground anchors are increasingly used for residential architectural constructions and other construction projects requiring low cost foundation stabilization. Ground anchors may provide for cost effective stabilization of foundations without requiring expensive excavations and deeply embedded foundations. A variety of prior art ground anchors are employed at the time of this invention, mostly in configurations including helical plates welded to square or round shafts. Such well known ground anchors are commonly installed by drilling them deep into the ground.
A main limitation of utilizing such ground anchors on a larger scale may be the time and space required for test loading of them. After installation, a ground anchor may need to be proof loaded with a predetermined load of several ten thousand pounds. In the prior art such test loads are commonly provided by at least two temporary ground anchors drilled into the ground adjacent the ground anchor under test. In a following step, a heavy beam is hauled onto the test site and fixed on top of the adjacent temporary anchors such that it spans across the to ground anchor under test. By use of well known hydraulic equipment, a push load is then applied on that ground anchor. The push load is transferred by the heavy beam onto the lateral temporary anchors. Any setting of the ground anchor under test loading is measured with reference to the surrounding ground. After successful testing the heavy beam is hauled away again and the temporary anchors screwed out of the ground. A single anchor test performed in such fashion may take several hours to complete and may require additional hauling equipment and a number of additional personnel to haul and install the heavy beam. The hauling and installation of the heavy beam may also impair other construction work performed at the construction site at the same time. Therefore, there exists a need for a method and system of load testing installed ground anchors substantially within the footprint of the ground anchor to be tested and without need of any additional proof load transferring heavy structures such as beams and the like. The present invention addresses this need.